


no matter which way you go

by fiveyaaas



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, Kinda, Light Angst, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:26:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27297865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiveyaaas/pseuds/fiveyaaas
Summary: “The cold smile he reserved for cameras (as it was an order by Reginald for him to do, it was basically the only time he ever smiled in the first place) slipped briefly as he assessed him. He forced it back on, asking through his teeth, voice uncharacteristically upbeat, “Why do you ask?” Klaus pretended that he was trying to sound positive for him, and not anybody that was bothering to listen into their conversation.”[written for kliego week, day 7]
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves/Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 2
Kudos: 41
Collections: Kliego Week 2020





	no matter which way you go

“You think spontaneous combustion is really possible?” 

Diego frowned, picking at his mask. Klaus thought at this point he would have gotten used to the itch of a mask, but maybe it was a different sensation with a different mask. He wondered idly if they had some sort of focus group, trying to figure out which costumes each of the members of the Umbrella Academy had to wear. It sounded exactly like something Reginald would do, never having understood anything involving  _ fun.  _ Apparently, the Seance fans all thought it was simply  _ hilarious  _ to make Klaus one of the Ghostbusters. 

As he had never once seen  _ Ghostbusters,  _ wasn’t allowed to engage in most of pop culture (especially none that he wasn’t particularly interested in), he felt just as uncomfortable as Diego clearly did dressed as Batman. Klaus was  _ extremely _ uncomfortable at the moment, having just found out what exactly  _ Ghostbusters  _ was after one of the beneficiaries they were schmoozing had asked him if he enjoyed the films, and he’d said, ‘Yeah, it’s my favorite horror film.’ 

There were times that Klaus felt one of the crueler aspects of Reginald’s upbringing was how different it clearly was in comparison to most people’s upbringings. The concept of running away became so much more daunting as he interacted more with the outside world- he felt like he’d come from a different planet, sometimes. He wondered if he would have even been  _ capable  _ of lasting in the outside world, without Reginald’s money or influence. Hell, Klaus wasn’t even entirely sure how buses worked. 

Diego glanced over at him. The cold smile he reserved for cameras (as it was an order by Reginald for him to do, it was basically the only time he ever smiled in the first place) slipped briefly as he assessed him. He forced it back on, asking through his teeth, voice uncharacteristically upbeat, “Why do you ask?” Klaus pretended that he was trying to sound positive for him, and not anybody that was bothering to listen into their conversation. Why Reginald insisted on having this gala on this holiday was a mystery, but all the numbers after one had mutually agreed it was likely money. It usually was with Sir Hargreeves. 

“I think Reginald is going to spontaneously combust if it’s a real thing,” Klaus said, remembering what he had even asked in the first place after a few seconds of thinking. “See the way he keeps looking over at Allison?”

“What did she do now?” Diego asked, relaxing a little at the mention of Number Three. They had a bet going for when her theatrics would finally exclude her from her spot on the favorite children list, something that would have made Klaus guilty if Reginald’s favoritism hadn’t been the reason he’d made Diego as a friend in the first place. 

“I think she’s trying to talk to some director,” Klaus said. “About her fighting experience.” 

Diego snorted, and Klaus felt a small smile tug against his lips. At Diego’s next words though, he was outright beaming. “Let’s get out of here, Klaus.” 

He had never gotten an offer like that from Diego, and he felt his stomach flip in a mixture of nervousness and excitement. “Yeah,” Klaus agreed eagerly. “Let’s get out of here.”

They didn’t go upstairs. Well, not for long, anyways. After sneaking upstairs, checking over their shoulders too many times to pass for discreet, they climbed out of the fire escape, hopping onto the concrete. Klaus felt his heart pound, euphoric. He and Diego had been joking all night, had been friends for quite a while now, and he felt like him wanting to get out of there was a  _ sign.  _

“Why are you upset?” Diego asked him, and Klaus deflated. So this was a  _ pity  _ thing. 

“I’m not,” he said, tucking his hands into the pockets of the overalls. 

“Don’t lie, Klaus, just tell me, okay?” He added the next part in a rush, making the sentence all one word. “Icareaboutyouokay?”

Klaus blinked, not so certain about the pity thing after all. He chewed the inside of his cheek, not sure how to respond. 

“Please tell me?”

Now,  _ that  _ was something he hadn’t heard before. “Did you just say  _ please?”  _ Klaus questioned incredulously. 

Diego’s left eye twitched. 

Sighing, Klaus admitted, “Sometimes I feel… out of place. Like, you know, when he has parties like this. I realize that we probably have a pretty great life in comparison to some people, but-“

“You don’t have to explain,” Diego told him, reaching forward quickly to pat his shoulder before blushing and moving his hand away like he’d been burned. “I get it.” 

“Do you think that it’s bad I feel this way?”

“No,” Diego said, carding his hand through his hair. Without any thought at all, they had walked to Griddy’s, and they both shrugged, walking inside. They both stole from Reginald regularly, and there would be a sense of satisfaction after scarfing down donuts tonight, even though he undoubtedly wouldn’t notice the disparity in his wealth at all. It was the principle of it, after all. “Just because we don’t have it the worst of anybody in the world, it’s not like he’s a good person. He’s certainly a miserable  _ father.”  _

“Do you consider him a father?” Klaus asked, curious to hear his answer. The one positive (or, well, neutral) thing he’d noticed upon interacting with the outside world was that Reginald was absolutely  _ not  _ their father, even if his ‘adoption’ had not come from offering stacks of cash to their birth mothers. He’d learned that fathers didn’t treat children the way he did, that, if anything, they were more like  _ soldiers.  _

“Not really,” Diego confessed, opening the door to Griddy’s for him. 

“I don’t either.” He hadn’t asked, but Klaus suspected he’d wanted the answer, anyways. 

When they’d bought a stack of donuts and sat down next to each other in their old booth, the one all seven of them had regularly piled in about six or seven years before, Diego asked him, an odd nostalgic quality in his voice, “Remember when we used to come here?” 

“And we’d pretend to not be the Umbrella Academy?” 

Diego smiled. “We’d say that we all went to the same school, and that we were just a group of friends.” 

Klaus glanced down at the pile of donuts, not used to seeing a genuine smile from him and incapable of looking directly at it. “That’s really sad in hindsight, isn’t it?”

Diego shrugged. 

An idea sparked in Klaus’s mind, and he blurted it before he could filter it out. “Do you want to pretend again, Diego?” He glanced up at him, knowing his eyes were filling with hope, even knowing that Diego was going to immediately squash it. 

He didn’t. 

“How would we pretend to know each other?” Diego asked, raising his brows. 

“We could be boyfriends.”

Diego flushed, and Klaus was certain he’d shut it down then.

He didn’t. 

“How did we meet?”

“I dunno. We could go with the classic, of course. A shared boarding school,” Klaus mused.

“With an evil headmaster?”

“Something like that, yeah.”

They shared a grin. 

Diego’s voice was more hesitant, but he continued, “How did we get together?”

“Oh, well. _ Obviously _ , you took one look at me and fell in love.” Klaus figured his face might be red, and he wondered why when it wasn’t like this had been the first time he’d flirted with anybody before. He wasn’t even a virgin. Still, this was different. 

“Right, obviously.”

“But, unfortunately, I strung you along for such a long time.”

“Sounds plausible,” Diego snorted. 

“Eventually, though, I got past your antisocial, bad boy personality. Well, that is, once you were truly  _ vulnerable _ with me.”

Diego raised his brows, picking at a strawberry sprinkled donut. “And how did I do that?”

“Well, you kissed me, of course.”

Nobody was around them. Even the lady who’d served them had run to the back. There would be nobody who noticed at all, nobody that would report this to Reginald. Still, he had no idea what Diego would do next. 

He clearly didn’t know either, and his voice shook as he asked, “Like this?”

Their lips pressed together, chaste. Klaus’s eyes were still wide as Diego pulled away. “Yeah,” he breathed. “Something like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who read!! I’m so excited to read all of the fics I haven’t gotten to yet in the kliego week collection, and I’d love to write more for this ship in the future (or at the very least include them as a side couple more frequently!)


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